Personal Branding and Dramatic Portraiture at North Hennepin Community College

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to speak to North Hennepin Community College’s newly formed Entrepreneurship Club about personal branding. I realize that personal branding has become a bit of a buzz term and often used to describe a wide variety of personal improvement strategies. However, when speaking to a group of students in this age range, I focus primarily on the importance of starting to develop a personal branding strategy and understanding the perceptions (both positive and negative) students may be projecting. The biggest eye-opening moments are typically when statistics are discussed about how future employees use social media to screen applicants. We also discuss many of the most commonly used personal branding tools.

Speaking on Personal Branding as Yasir practices his best poses.

After the short session, I offered to take headshots of any students who wanted an updated a profile picture. The lighting I used for these photos was fairly dramatic, but it would be a stark contrast from a cellphone “selfie.”

Here are a few of my favorite photos from this quick session.

Besides having a completely infectious personality, Basil is the former Black Men’s Leadership Chair and currently a Board Trustee for Minnesota State. He had just returned from meeting with the new interim Chancellor.

Founder of the Entrepreneurship Club and a pretty amazing guy.

Attempt at a “serious photo.” : )

I took Christoper to the Economics Club of MN Luncheon last month and he networked like a seasoned pro!

Love this guy! Vlad will take his 4th class from me starting in March. He just kills it

Preparing to graduate this spring—already has a huge YouTube following for his channel on . . . you guessed it. Magic.

One of my amazing online students–who I met face-to-face for the first time.

Testing the lighting set-up. . . and mixing checks with dots–CRAZY!

Brady Prenzlow is a full-time business and marketing instructor at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, MN.